Enes Kanter Freedom ejected from courtside seat at WNBA game after altercation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud
Late in the third quarter, Cloud drove to the basket and converted a difficult shot that prompted a timeout from Fever coach Stephanie White. As players from both teams headed to their respective benches, Cloud began pointing and yelling at Kanter Freedom, who stood up and walked towards the court.
An official and security personnel immediately intervened and Cloud’s teammates arrived to remove her from the situation. The official motioned for Kanter Freedom to be ejected and both team and arena security escorted him from his seat. He tried to protest in an area behind the courtside seats for a short period before eventually leaving to a chorus of boos and middle fingers.
Natasha Cloud did not speak to the media after Sunday’s game. He met with team and league security. He later made a statement on social media.
“To every trans child/person, you are part of MY community and tribe. You belong. You are loved. You are seen. You are perfect just the way you are. And you will always be protected by me,” Cloud wrote.
“I talked to the team and Tash didn’t want to feel like it was a distraction. I told him it wasn’t,” Sky coach Tyler Marsh said in his postgame press conference. “I told her that we all accept her as someone who protects our team and the people who need to be protected. Tash will always defend that and we will defend her.”
“There’s so much good in this league and so much good in the game of these players, that if you come to a game, you should probably come to enjoy basketball,” Marsh said. “That seems pretty simple to me. I think these players deserve it and have earned it. Being a former basketball player, you should probably understand and feel it too.”
Fever star Caitlin Clark said she didn’t see the incident, and both she and Lexie Hull shook their heads when asked if Kanter Freedom had said anything to them during the game. Fever coach Stephanie White said it’s “important that people like you in this room don’t rush it. It’s a social media thing.”
This isn’t the first time Cloud and Kanter Freedom have crossed paths. In 2023, the two exchanged opinions on social media after Cloud criticized the United States government.
The WNBA has become a battleground for debate over transgender athletes over the past month after Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said in an ESPN profile that she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sports who shouldn’t have to face biological men.”
Cunningham later doubled his bet ahead of the Fever’s victory over the Connecticut Sun on July 22. “I said what I said. I think it’s common sense,” he said. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and it’s the little girls that are involved in that category as well. I stand by what I said.”
Cunningham added that she “doesn’t dislike anyone” and that there is “room to love everyone.” She continued, “I’m also there to love biological women and I believe that there are rights that need to be protected. And, like I said, I will be true to that. I will never fail in my beliefs on that. But I have never once said that I hated the trans community.”
In the wake of Cunningham’s comments, Kanter Freedom has spent the last few weeks campaigning to be eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft, along with her former NBA player Royce White. Both Kanter Freedom and White have stated that they now identify as women.
The WNBA has never had a transgender player and has no public policy on transgender participation. The new collective bargaining agreement simply states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”
Earlier this month, the WNBA convened a working group to discuss the issue and issued a statement that read, in part: “We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with our league’s values. There are no immediate eligibility issues affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce bad faith efforts to use these issues to demean or marginalize others.”
